Salem Assistant Fire Chief Bill Fulton is asking those taking part in the Little Egypt Festival Parade on Saturday not to throw candy from moving vehicles.
Fulton fears an accident could result.
“You’ll notice that the Salem Fire District, we don’t throw candy from the fire engines, because we’d hate for some little kid to run up, slip, and slide under one of our big trucks and so forth, and it’s always been a major concern of ours that that might happen. As far as throwing candy, I would just as soon see people walk alongside and hand it out.”
Fulton says there is also a reason Salem Fire Protection units will not utilize their sirens during the parade.
“That started 25 years ago after 9/11. It was a thing that we did as a memorial to all of the firefighters that were killed during the 9/11 incident. The other thing we’ve found with that, a lot of people, especially small children, don’t really like to be that close to a siren while we’re going down the parade route. We actually get thumbs-up from people because we’re not blowing our sirens.”
There will be nearly 100 entries in the Little Egypt Festival Parade that steps off at two Saturday afternoon from Bryan Memorial Park to Main Street and then west on Main to Indiana Street. You can hear live coverage on WSIQ AM/FM beginning around two pm.
Fulton says there is also a reason Salem Fire Protection units will not utilize their sirens during the parade.
